Universidad Internacional San Isidro Labrador

July 17, 2008

Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford and the International University of San Isidro Labrador of Costa Rica have signed an academic agreement that will exchange up to three students between the two universities.

SWOSU President John Hays and IUSIL President Gerardo Velasquez Araya signed the agreement at a ceremony and luncheon July 17 on the SWOSU campus.

This is the second academic exchange agreement that SWOSU has signed in 2008. Earlier this year an agreement was signed with Dong-A University in Korea.

SWOSU and IUSIL will also encourage visits by faculty to engage in research or other educational activities.

“These exchanges are very beneficial to the universities involved,” Hays said. “Both students and faculty will benefit from these scholarly interactions.”

The program was developed after Dr. Radwan Al-Jarrah, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, visited Costa Rica in May. Al-Jarrah arranged the agreement, which will be reviewed after a five-year period.

UISIL is located in San Isidro Labrador, located about three hours south of the capital city of San Jose. San Isidro is a city of approximately 300,000 people. The private university is only 11 years old and has 2,600 students and seven branch campus locations.

SWOSU has locations in Weatherford and Sayre. The university has just over 5,000 students.